| 1st Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Host country |  United Kingdom |
| Dates | 1 May 1944– 16 May 1944 |
| Cities | London |
| Heads of Government | 6 |
| Chair | Winston Churchill (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) |
| Follows | 1937 Imperial Conference |
| Precedes | 1946 |
| Key points | |
Supporting theMoscow Declaration Coordination of war effort | |
The1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference was the firstMeeting of theHeads of Government of theBritish Commonwealth. It was held in theUnited Kingdom, between 1–16 May 1944, and was hosted by that country'sPrime Minister,Winston Churchill.
The conference was attended by the Prime Ministers of all of theDominions within the Commonwealth except Ireland and Newfoundland. Attendees included Prime MinisterJohn Curtin of Australia, Prime MinisterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King of Canada, Prime MinisterPeter Fraser ofNew Zealand and Prime MinisterJan Smuts ofSouth Africa. Also attending was Prime MinisterSir Godfrey Huggins of theself-governing colony ofSouthern Rhodesia, and representingIndia wasThe Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. Members of theChurchill War Cabinet and the High Commissioners of the Dominions also attended.
Ireland did not participate although at the time the British Commonwealth still regarded Ireland as one of its members. Ireland had not participated in any equivalent conferences since 1932.
The British Commonwealth leaders agreed to support theMoscow Declaration and reached agreement regarding their respective roles in the overallAllied war effort.[1]
Prior to the conference,Robert McIntyre andDouglas Young, the leaders of theScottish National Party, lobbied King, Fraser, Smuts, Huggins, and Curtin, asking them to raise the issue ofScottish independence at the conference and to inviteScotland to take part in it and all future Commonwealth Conferences. Curtin viewed it as an internal matter for the British government, King was sympathetic, and the remainder simply voiced their acknowledgement of the communiques.[2]
Churchill failed to obtain the demonstration of Commonwealth solidarity that he had sought. The American journalBusiness Week concluded that the real winner of the conference was theUnited States. Churchill omitted the conference in his memories.[3]
